'What's celebrity sex, Dad?' It was my 7-year-old son, who had been looking over my shoulder at my computer screen. He mispronounced 'celebrity' but spoke the word 'sex' as if he had been using it all his life. 'Celebrity six,' I said, abruptly closi…

The appointment of India-born Satya Nadella as Microsoft Corp.'s CEO has caused a bit of a stir in China, where people are questioning why Indians but not Chinese are getting top jobs in the U.S. Language and familiarity with Western culture are the…

The mass uprisings this summer in Egypt, Turkey and Brazil are powerful reminders that the middle classes drive history. What remains unclear, however, is where they are driving it. uprising:起义,升起 The world today is witnessing its third great surge o…

The American political class has long held that higher education is vital to individual and national success. The Obama administration has dubbed college 'the ticket to the middle class,' and political leaders from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to…

The casino billboards lining America's roadways tantalize with the lure of riches. 'Easy Street. It's Only a Play Away,' screams one in Arizona. '$7.1 Million Every Day. We're a Payout Machine,' reads another. casino:赌场,俱乐部 lining:内层,衬套 tantalize:逗弄,…

I'm not a hugger. When I see a registered personal-space invader coming my way at a party, the music from 'Jaws' plays in my head. And there are lots of people like me -- reasonably comfortable in social situations, no particular phobias, just a bit…

We spend a full five hours and 16 minutes a day in front of a screen, and that's without even turning on a television. So says a statistic from eMarketer, a research firm that focuses on digital media and marketing. It says that for the first time we…

In Asia, middle managers such as department heads make more than 14 times as much as operational employees such as clerical workers--the biggest such pay disparity in the world, according to a report by global management consulting firm Hay Group. de…

Americans have long taken pride on their willingness to bet it all on a dream. But that risk-taking spirit appears to be fading. Three long-running trends suggest the U.S. economy has turned soft on risk: Companies add jobs more slowly, even in good…

The fate described by Dostoyevsky is a nightmare we all hope to escape. But we're surrounded by naysayers who deride that hope as unrealistic. 'You hate your job?'they ask. 'Everyone hates their job!' No. Not everyone hates their job. If you have the…